The British ace was surprisingly beaten in three sets by Cristina Bucsa in the first round of the inaugural event on Monday (27.01.25) but felt that she performed at a better level in the match than she did in her recent run to the third round at the Australian Open.

Raducanu said after the match: "I think I'm in a pretty good place with everything and I think I actually played better than I did in Melbourne, so that is ironic.

"I think it was really small margins in it. I honestly thought I played pretty well today.

"She [Bucsa] just played unbelievable and, credit to her, she kept it up the whole match."

Despite her early exit, the former US Open champion was pleased with the level of independence she showed at the event following the departure of her coach Nick Cavaday for health reasons last week.

Raducanu explained: "I have the positives [from] this week, coming here on my own with [fitness coach] Yutaka [Nakamura] and my mum, but I'm really proud of how I dealt and handled myself this week.

"I feel okay. I feel like I have certain things we all manage as the year goes on. I think it's pretty early in the season.

"For me to be playing this kind of match, all I need is time on court and a match-competitive situation, which I got today. I got it in abundance - over three hours of it - so, for me, it's really valuable because every match I play, I feel like it's a win.

"And I fought really hard. I gave everything. So I just got to keep building and moving on."